Makgadikgadi Pans National Park

Campsites in Makgadikgadi PansNational Park

This Game Reserve is a salt pan with an area of 3 900 sq. kms. Situated in the middle of the dry savanna of north-eastern Botswana it is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadikgadi.

Lying southeast of the Okavango Delta and surrounded by the Kalahari Desert, Makgadikgadi is technically not a single pan but many pans with sandy desert in between. The largest is the Sua (Sowa), Nwetwe and Nxai Pans. The largest individual pan is about 1,900 sq miles (4,921.0 km2).

The pans are salty desert whose only plant life is a thin layer of blue-green algae. Very little wildlife can exist during the harsh dry season of strong hot winds and only salt water. However, following a rain the pan becomes an important habitat for migrating animals such as wildebeest, one of Africa’s biggest zebra populations, and the large predators that prey on them. The wet season brings migratory birds such as ducks, geese and Great White Pelicans. The Sowa pan is home to one of only two breeding populations of Greater Flamingos in southern Africa.

The main entrance to the Park is about halfway between Maun and the town of Nata on the Francistown road.
One is advised to drive a 4×4 vehicle.
Travelling west from Gweta to the turn off is 45km (28 miles).
Kumaga (Xhumaga) is another entrance about 48km (30 miles) south-west of the main entrance (toward the Central Kalahari Game Reserve).